Kossian
Phonology Vowels Kossian possesses a rather simple system of 6 vowels /a ə e i o u/. Vowel length is phonemic and all vowels except /ə/ can be either short or long. Combinations of the type VS or SVS (V = vowel, S = semivowel) are considered diphthongs and triphthongs, respectively. /ji/ is very rare, /wu/ is forbidden and /ij uw/ are realized as long vowels uː instead of diphthongs. The vowel /ə/ doesn't form diphthongs or triphthongs. Consonants Kossian possesses 20 consonantal phonemes. Though most of its consonants appear quite commonly, the existence of aspirated voiced plosives (even though, due to sound changes, they are not pronounced as aspirated voiced plosives anymore) is rather special. Also, ɬ and r̥ are uncommon phones for a European language. *A number of consonants show allophones in combination with /j/; the sequences /nj gj sj zj lj/ are pronounced ʝ ʃ ʒ ʎ *The nasals /m n/ are only contrastive in onsets; both of them assimilate to following plosives and are pronounced n ŋ *The aspirated voiced plosives /bʰ dʰ gʰ/ are pronounced ð ɣ; if they appear in clusters with voiceless consonants, they are pronounced θ x instead *All aspirated plosives can pass their aspiration on to following liquids /r l/; /rʰ lʰ/ are pronounced ɬ respectively *The rhotic consonant /r/ can be pronounced r in free variation; however, the most common realization of /r/ in MSK is r̥ in consonant clusters and r(ː) intervocalicly Phonotactics All Kossian syllables must contain a nucleus which can only contain a vowel. The onset is independent of the nucleus; the coda, however, depends on the type of vowel in the nucleus since the semivowel or chroneme are considered part of the coda. Onsets can either consist of a single consonant, any consonant followed by a semivowel, a plosive followed by /r/ or a non-alveolar plosive followed by /l/. Due to the incomplete loss of a preceding syllable, some words feature defective onsets. These words have an additional fricative in the onset. Possible defective onsets are /s/ before any voiceless unaspirated plosive and /bʰ gʰ/ before /t/. Codas can contain a maximum of 2 consonants. If the syllable contains a short vowel, it can contain a single consonant, a nasal followed by /s/ or a liquid followed by a plosive. Additionally, consonant clusters may at maximum contain 3 consonants across syllable boundaries, doubling of consonants and sequences of fricatives are forbidden. Sandhi Kossian features some sound changes across morpheme but not word boundaries. The most important of these Sandhi effects is the gemination of single consonants in inflectional endings following stems ending in short vowels. Also, the addition of /ə/ is common to avoid large consonant clusters. Stress Bisyllabic words are always stressed on the ultimate. In words containing more syllables, stress is dependent on syllable weight: The penultimate is stressed if it is heavier than the ultimate. Otherwise, the stress falls on the ultimate. Syllables are considered heavy if they contain a diphthong or triphthong, a long vowel or a short vowel followed by 2 consonants and light if they contain a short vowel or a short vowel followed by a single consonants. The onset does not influence syllable weight.